CAIR in a Nutshell

It might be pride, it might be a stubborn adherence to its core ideology, but Fox News reports that the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) could find itself back in the FBI's good graces by making a simple declaration distancing itself from a terrorist group.

Despite CAIR's insistence that it has "a clear record of consistently and persistently condemning terrorism," of all forms and by all players, it cannot bring itself to say it won't support Hamas, Fox reported. It cited an anonymous FBI official who explained:

"We wanted them to basically sit down and say that they didn't support (Hamas) and they intended to refrain from future support. That's really nothing fancy, other than an ideological rejection of Hamas. They don't want to (do) that."

The FBI broke off relations with CAIR last year, after evidence in the terror-financing trial against the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development included numerous exhibits tying CAIR to a Hamas-support network in the United States called the Palestine Committee. In a letter to inquiring U.S. senators earlier this year, an FBI official explained "until we can resolve whether there continues to be a connection between CAIR or its executives and HAMAS, the FBI does not view CAIR as an appropriate liaison partner."

Politico reports that a federal judge denied CAIR's effort to be removed from a list of unindicted co-conspirators in the Holy Land case.

The rebuff of the FBI would be the latest in a long history of CAIR's refusal to criticize of condemn Hamas despite its lofty claim of standing against terror.

That record has been ignored by media outlets and those who rushed to the group's defense in the wake of a new book that provides an insider's account of how CAIR misleads the public and works to stymie law enforcement. CAIR has sued the book's authors for trespassing and theft but has yet to allege any falsehoods in their account.

CAIR has condemned the Fort Hood massacre. But for years it has touted the notion that the U.S. was at war with Islam, a theory believed to be a factor in radicalizing some Muslims and something that reportedly fueled Nidal Malik Hasan's rampage.

CAIR's track record suggests that it considers some attacks on civilians acceptable when it agrees with the attacker's politics.

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